If you missed Funny Ha-Ha earlier this month, you didn't get to see the following funny short films from Chicago filmmaker Joe Avella. These are NSFW (language) so use your headphones if you're at the office.

The next Funny Ha-Ha is October 19 and features hosts of other great Chicago readings and shows! Mark your calendars for Funny Ha-Ha: Heavenly Hosts.

If you can't wait that long to see me, come check me out this Friday at the Book Cellar as I make my debut with The Kates! This is a seriously funny show at my favorite bookstore in the city so if you can't make it this week, you should mark your calendar for a future show.

So the Air and Water Show is this weekend, and if you haven’t yet, this week you may start hearing and seeing previews of the show as the planes practice over the lake. This is the part of the summer where a lot of people get annoyed. And complain.

I understand in theory (and in practice) why people don’t like the low-flying planes and screeching sky-noise of the show. It’s scary and threatening and reminiscent of wartime and, worst of all, makes outdoor cellphone conversations hard.

But the Air and Water Show is so awesome. What I love about it involves being a part of something exciting without doing (or paying) anything at all! I personally hate experiencing thrills and chills. I loathe roller coasters and if I can ride out airplane rides fully unconscious that’s fine by me. But with the Air and Water show, the excitement comes to you, and you don’t even have to do anything or practically go anywhere! Come on, that’s rad--it’s like a fireworks show that conveniently places itself outside your window.

I know I can’t convince many of you that the show is cool, but in that case, I want to know why you stay in town when the show comes.

The Printers Ball is an annual celebration of literary culture founded by Poetry magazine and other independent Chicago literary organizations which showcases live readings, music, and performances and host letterpress, offset, silk-screening, rubber-stamping, and paper-making demonstrations (this year's has passed but keep an eye out for next year's.)

For the 2010 ball, a collaborative art book was produced by the Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College, the Chicago Printers’ Guild, and Poetry magazine will be released and ready for circulation. Twenty writers were paired with 20 printers to create a limited-edition (only 50 copies!), hand-printed art book. The book, a compilation of broadsides, features the work of Kathleen Judge, Steve Walters, Audrey Niffenegger, Ed Roberson, and others.

I got to collaborate myself. I submitted this post I wrote up for Zulkey.com last year and printmaker Jessica Taylor brought it to life.

For running the Rock n’ Roll half-marathon, I received a swag bag with some samples of granola bars, a shirt, a medal, a really good brunch, and some welts on my chest, shoulders and arm from my running clothes and accoutrement. The welts look gross.

Every time I’ve run a race or hit a running goal, I’ve thought “I did it! What next?” Not this time, though. After I passed the finish line yesterday I thought “Thank god that’s over,” and before the finish line I thought “It’s almost over" and around mile 3 I thought "God I can't believe I have ten miles to go before this is over." I can’t think of anything else in my whole life thus far that I was glad to have behind me. I didn’t realize the extent of this until I was back home, getting ready to shower. I took my heartrate monitor band off, threw it on the floor and thought “F-- that.”

I’m not sure if that’s the right attitude. Or is that normal? I feel like I’m supposed to be inspired and want to run a full marathon now, but to quote myself: F-- that.

It has been brought to my attention (via my dad, because that's what dads are for) that today is the feast day of St. Clare of Assisi. As far as namesake saints go, Clare is pretty cool: she was one of the first followers of animal-lover St. Francis. She was a former rich girl who cut off her hair and renounced her fancy garb and future rich husband in order to become a nun.

More bizarrely, Clare is the patron saint of television, despite the fact that she was born around 1194(1194-07-16... According to lore (and Wikipedia), Pope Pius XII designated her as the patron saint of TV in 1958, on the basis that when she was too ill to attend Mass, she had reportedly been able to see and hear it on the wall of her room. The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) was founded by a Poor Clare nun, Mother Angelica.

I've been given a handful of semi-kistchy glow-in-the-dark St. Clare statues over the course my life, which I've heard some TV producers and editors place near their consoles. It's probably divine intervention that I eventually became a TV critic, although the presence of the St.